Friday, March 7, 2014

Vikings 2.1-2: Upping the Ante of Conquest

Vikings is back on the History Channel, with an appealing mix of new and continuing characters - including new sons for Ragnor with his new wife - and tensions among Norse leaders which are never too far from erupting into outright killing and battle.

But my favorite parts of the series - last year and now this year as well - are the battles and general interactions Ragnar and his band have with the people living in the British Isles to the West. Episode 2.2 gets Ragnar and his ships blown off-course. Some are missing, but Ragnar and a handful of his ships land someplace they have not been before: in the civilized south of England, in the Kingdom of the West Saxons or Wessex.

Wessex has men in armor far more capable in battle than the priests in the monastery or the poorly organized fighters Ragnar encountered in the north last year. In one of the best scenes in the series, the Wessex fighters surprise Ragnar's camp with a savage attack. Outnumbered, Ragnar's men - and women - use brilliant defensive strategy to first withstand the attack, and then turn the tables into a rout of the Wessex attackers.

The Vikings, historically, were indeed more agile than the landed warriors of the places they invaded. That, and the initial element of shocked surprise, were the main reasons they did so well in their conquests. But even the Vikings were not invulnerable to vastly superior numbers of fighters who had any prowess, and the Wessex warriors clearly have some prowess.

Add into this volatile environment the talents of Althestan, who not only speaks the olde English language but has become an effective wielder of an axe on behalf of Ragnar, and it looks like we have the makings of a very good season for Vikings indeed.

About Me

Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication &
Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997),
Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the
subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science
Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).His short stories
have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.Paul Levinson appears on "The
O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"“NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),“Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous
national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of
television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of
Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

e-mail received from a reader:Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom